Last night I took a sleeping pill and three vitamin C tablets at 1:30. I woke up at 9:30 and knew at once that I had caught a slight cold. Called P and said I wouldn’t be in to Tarleton until 6 P.M.
Was famished by the time I got to El Rancho for lunch. Alberto served me a Margarita with my meal. Felt much better though still vaguely dazed physically from the cold. Went to noon Mass at the Cathedral and sat up close to the front. The pastor Father Donahue said the Mass. In his homily he emphasized that we Christians were not to give scandal in any way.
Returned home and sunbathed in the backyard for perhaps half an hour. Thereafter the sky grew cloudy. Came back up to my room and napped a while. A letter from Mrs. Dubourg reached me and brought me a measure of happiness. Reread
parts of Getting to Know the General by Graham Greene and reflected that as a memoir of a deceased friend it might serve me as a model for my novel, which passes as a memoir and might be entitled Getting to Know the General’s Son.
It rained. I went to the gym and steam bathed. George asked me in mild exasperation, “Where’s Slate?” I had said I would call the guy and see how he was doing, but I’d never gotten around to making the call and now Slate was probably in Africa. Slate was George’s favorite and George had really wanted me to contact Slate, as though I had nothing more to do than to cultivate friendships with our Gym buddies. May God be taking good care of Slate wherever he may be now.
Didn’t feel much like supper but I knew I needed some nourishment. Went to Texas French Bread on Red River and ate two cookies and drank a large glass of orange juice. Read more Graham Greene. He speaks of his admiration for Thomas Mann, preferring Lotte in Weidmar above The Magic Mountain.
Got to Terleton for six. Mr. Merson saw me and called to me, “John? Did Parolla talk to you? It’ll work out!” By this I think he was telling me it will be I, not some student, who will close the library at midnight beginning at the end of the month. For a while I thought that P was going to prevent me from getting my 3-to-midnight schedule back.
P said there was ample desk coverage for tonight and I could therefore leave at any time I wanted. I typed out the bursar’s list for the summer and left at 8 o’clock.| Provided by Steinhardt & Company. |